Sudan to step up crackdown on corruption, minister says
April 15, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese justice minister Mohamed Bushara Dousa announced today that he has received the green light from the country’s chief justice to establish new courts to deal with money embezzlements in the public sector on the state and federal level.
Dousa, who addressed a conference on legal reform in Khartoum on Monday, noted that Public Funds Prosecution Division investigated 80 cases over the last two years and adjudicated several of them without giving an exact figure.
The justice minister also spoke of steps undertaken to separate civil prosecution from criminal prosecution.
He also revealed that he appealed to Bashir to approve opening legal attachés in Cairo, Riyadh, Addis Ababa, Geneva, and New York to provide legal services in the field of international law.
President Omer Hassan al-Bashir, who spoke at the same conference, directed the justice ministry to prosecute and deter those who illegally obtain public funds, calling upon all government bodies to adhere to law, especially with regard to government contracts and international agreements.
Early in 2012, Bashir ordered the establishment of an anti-corruption commission to “monitor and follow what is being published in the media about corruption,” and to coordinate with the Presidency of the Republic and other competent authorities in the Ministry of Justice and the National Assembly in order to complete information on what is being raised about corruption on the state level”.
But after more than a year of seemingly zero activity, Bashir sacked the commission head and did not appoint a replacement dealing blow to demands by the public for more robust investigation of corruption.
Bashir himself has persistently downplayed the magnitude of corruption saying that most of it amount to nothing more than rumors without credible proof.
(ST)